Chapter 9 - THE NIGHT DANIEL REALIZED HIS MOTHER HAD CHANGED THE PLAN
Daniel asked to see me after police showed him the hallway footage.
I said no.
He asked again through Marissa.
I said no.
Then he sent one sentence.
I knew she changed something. I didn’t know what.
That I answered.
You still left it in my bed.
His reply took nine minutes.
I know.
Not an excuse.
Not an argument.
Two words.
They ruined my afternoon.
Because remorse is much easier to reject when it comes dressed as self-defense.
I met him the next day at Marissa’s office.
Not alone.
Not at his hotel.
Not in our house.
He looked different.
The red marks on his back had faded.
His confidence had not returned with his health.
“I’m cooperating,” he said.
“Good.”
“I told Morales everything.”
“Everything now or everything you remembered was discoverable?”
He looked down.
“Fair.”
That startled me.
Daniel had never accepted a blow without returning one.
I sat across from him.
“Tell me about the strip.”
He rubbed his thumb against the edge of his wedding ring.
“I ordered the low-dose formulation.”
“Stop calling it low-dose like that makes it moral.”
“You’re right.”
Another surprise.
I hated them.
“Continue.”
“Lena arranged the blank films. Formulation loaded them.”
“Then Celeste took one.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“When did you know something changed?”
“Rosa was changing the bed. I saw the strip.”
“What was different?”
“The backing was a different color.”
“You called Celeste.”
“Yes.”
“Why her?”
“She had installed it.”
My whole body went still.
“What?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“She put the device under the fitted sheet.”
“You let your mother enter our bedroom and install a drug-delivery strip under my body.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I couldn’t do it without you noticing.”
I stared at him.
Fourteen years.
I knew which grocery store he hated.
How he took coffee.
Which knee hurt when it rained.
He had known I would notice if he remade the bed.
So he outsourced the betrayal.
“What did Celeste say when you told her it looked different?”
“She said the supplier changed the backing.”
“You believed her?”
“At first.”
“And later?”
“I called Lena.”
“What did Lena say?”
“That she hadn’t changed anything.”
“Then you knew.”
“I knew somebody had.”
“Your mother.”
“I suspected.”
“Why didn’t you remove it?”
His face twisted.
Because there was no answer that helped him.
Finally:
“I was scared the whole plan would fall apart.”
My hands went flat on the table.
“There it is.”
“I didn’t think she would make it dangerous.”
“You did not know.”
“No.”
“You didn’t know, and you left it under me.”
“Yes.”
“Why did Celeste tell you I was at Mom’s the night you got exposed?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said she called.”
“She did.”
“What exactly?”
“She said you’d had a fight with your mom earlier and went there.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“I know now.”
“Did you normally sleep on my side when I wasn’t home?”
“Sometimes.”
“Did Celeste know?”
“She might.”
“How?”
Daniel looked embarrassed.
“After the new mattress came, she kept asking whether my back felt better.”
I stared at him.
“She asked which side was firmer?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“A few times.”
I leaned back.
Celeste knew the location of the device.
Knew which side I slept on.
Knew Daniel sometimes moved there if I was gone.
And told him falsely that I would not be home.
“Daniel.”
He looked up.
“What if she wanted you on that strip?”
His face changed.
“No.”
“You’ve thought about it.”
“No.”
“You have.”
“She wouldn’t.”
“She almost killed me.”
“She wouldn’t hurt me.”
The certainty in his voice sounded exactly like mine had sounded years ago when someone warned me Daniel was erasing my contribution from Veyron.
Love does not always blind people.
Sometimes it edits.
“What happens to your shares if you die?” I asked.
Daniel stared at me.
“That’s disgusting.”
“Answer.”
“My trust holds them.”
“Who is trustee?”
He did not answer.
He didn’t need to.
Celeste.
Marissa leaned forward.
“Beneficiaries?”
“Eventually our children.”
“You don’t have children.”
“Then Mara.”
I blinked.
“What?”
Daniel looked at me.
“My estate goes to you if I die.”
That weakened the theory.
Unless Celeste controlled the trust long enough to move something first.
Marissa asked, “Can Celeste vote your shares while the estate is administered?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know.”
“Potentially through the Haldane transaction?”
Daniel went silent.
He had never considered it.
I had.
If Daniel died before closing, Celeste could temporarily control his voting interest.
But I would still control mine.
Unless I was dead or incapacitated too.
“Maybe she didn’t target you,” Daniel said.
“Then why tell you I wasn’t home?”
“I don’t know.”
We sat in silence.
For the first time, Daniel and I were afraid of the same person.
That did not make us allies.
It made the room colder.
After he left, Marissa received a call from Detective Morales.
The state lab had completed comparative analysis.
The dangerous strip contained VX-17.
The five stored strips contained VX-4B.
Different formulation families.
Different risk profiles.
“Can they tell who prepared VX-17?” I asked.
“Not from chemistry alone.”
“What about records?”
“Deleted.”
“Convenient.”
“Partly recovered.”
My pulse changed.
“What did they find?”
“A formulation-selection command.”
“User?”
“Administrative override.”
“Celeste?”
“No user name.”
“Then?”
“A workstation.”
I waited.
Morales said, “Daniel’s executive office.”
May you like
I looked toward the door he had just walked through.
The dangerous formulation had been selected from his own computer.
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